Five games to book a place in Spurs squad

Much has been made of the fact we have a squad that is too large, yet we are still trying to buy more players so with five games to go before the close of the window players will have to prove their worth immediately.

Fans moan we should pay extra to buy players when we don't even have enough room in the squad for the players we have got. To buy we have to sell, we will have to do the same in the next window and the next unless we plan this window.

That means trimming the squad and that's something head coach Mauricio Pochettino is keen to do.

“It’s true, we need to take a decision but at the moment all have the possibility to stay with us."

But how do you do it, who do you cull. We have too many non-home grown players so we need to shift some of those, no just to bring someone in now but to prepare for next summer. If we have non-home grown places available in the squad then we can buy early in the window, if we don't, we can't.

We also have youth coming through so what do you do with it all, Ryan Mason, Tom Carroll, Harry Kane, Cristian Ceballos to name just a few, we won't be able to give enough opportunity to them all and we don't seem to loan out many players to other Premier League clubs when they are at this level.

Is Ryan Mason going to play enough or should he be loaned out for a season to a Crystal Palace or Swansea, Southampton even, wouldn't that speed his development. Some tough decisions are going to have to be made, you can only sell the players people want to buy, if we don't want them, a lot of other clubs are not going to want them either. Benoit Assou-Ekotto for instance, not a shred of interest so far.

Roberto Soldado is one with continual speculation. The Italian press dream up all sorts of stories to suggest a dirt cheap or loan deal, neither of which are of any benefit to Spurs, only to the clubs they link him too, the same happens in Spain.

Bottom line is nobody will pay the money we paid because he isn't worth it at the moment so we can't sell, we have to boost his confidence, gt him scoring and then make a decision on his future. That will mean playing as a lone striker in our system or as a partner for Adebayor when the situation demands it as Pochettino pointed out.

“In Southampton we did it with Rickie Lambert and Jay Rodriguez and Adam Lallana and we are flexible.

“Sometimes we play with two strikers and sometimes with one striker in the same game, but we always play with the same philosophy. We need to be protagonists and always press high, work hard and be a dynamic team.

"But after we have a lot of games and we have time for all the players to show and play.”

When given a chance it is up to the player to take it, not expect charity and a run of games to get your feet. That costs points and the club can't afford that. Players that moan they need a chance are the wrong players for the club, they are mentally weak with a losers mentality, a winner simply takes his chance and puts you under pressure to pick him again.

That's what we need to see from players this season and there are five games to do it in, three Premier League games, West Ham, QPR, Liverpool and two Europa League games against AEL Limassol.